belgian blue bull

polod

hi all....my first post here by the way i am just thinking of buying a blue bull ...what do ye think of them are they easy to manage compared to a CH bull for example temperment etc. ? I see blue bulls on done deal for about 2000......my AI bill is nearly that with the number of repeats i have sometimes i have twenty four mostly limousins and simmental cows.

leg wax

polod wrote: »

hi all....my first post here by the way i am just thinking of buying a blue bull ...what do ye think of them are they easy to manage compared to a CH bull for example temperment etc. ? I see blue bulls on done deal for about 2000......my AI bill is nearly that with the number of repeats i have sometimes i have twenty four mostly limousins and simmental cows.

they are easy to work with but their big problem is the feef and legs,any bull you see on done deal for 2000 euros cant be much even for a old bull,a lot of lads kept their best weanlings for bulls watch out, i think you will need to go deeper into your pocket.

polod

cheers for that leg wax ..they seem to be a lot smaller than CH bulls to....ah yeah scrub bulls we call them :-D

reilig

Another problem with BB bulls is that you never know what size of calf you will get from them. Imagine if you bought one and had to do sections on a majority of your cows??

€4k would be considered a low price for a pedigree BB bull!!

polod

reilig wrote: »

Another problem with BB bulls is that you never know what size of calf you will get from them. Imagine if you bought one and had to do sections on a majority of your cows??

€4k would be considered a low price for a pedigree BB bull!!

ah yeah i know we put nearly our cows incalf to DEP very hard calving bull.....but all our cows are on hay before they calve....and we are handy with the jack
jaysus 4k euro....think il stick with the ai for another while so .... i like CH bulls to but i find i always get more for my blue weanlings

leg wax

reilig wrote: »

Another problem with BB bulls is that you never know what size of calf you will get from them. Imagine if you bought one and had to do sections on a majority of your cows??

€4k would be considered a low price for a pedigree BB bull!!

and you know what size of calf anyother breed of bull will have, now there one for me.

reilig

leg wax wrote: »

and you know what size of calf anyother breed of bull will have, now there one for me.

Put it this way. My vet was telling me earlier this week, his practice did 270 sections on cows and heifers from January 1st 2011 to June 1 2011. Over 200 of these female animals were in calf to Belgian Blue Bulls.

At least if you use AI BB, most of the time you have calving statistics for the bull. If you buy a BB bull, you are relying on statistics from his ancestors, rather than the bull himself.

pakalasa

Anyone ever breed their own cross-bred bull?
For example AI a cow of known breeding, say an by an easy calving AI limousin bull like MBU. Use an easy calving BB bull on her.
That way, you would know 3/4 of the breeding in the bull. Quality of the offspring wouldnt be as good. But you're far less likely to get calving problems than say with a random cross-bred bull bought in the mart.

reilig

pakalasa wrote: »

Anyone ever breed their own cross-bred bull?
For example AI a cow of known breeding, say an by an easy calving AI limousin bull like MBU. Use an easy calving BB bull on her.
That way, you would know 3/4 of the breeding in the bull. Quality of the offspring wouldnt be as good. But you're far less likely to get calving problems than say with a random cross-bred bull bought in the mart.

I'd consider doing it with a pedigree limousin cow

But I'd like to know how others got on first?

Something like this guy I imagine:

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-IXRSkekgckA/TcCmNLbPm1I/AAAAAAAAAA4/wxg6dThKUzE/s1600/Mexico+1st+May+077.jpg

polod

reilig wrote: »

Put it this way. My vet was telling me earlier this week, his practice did 270 sections on cows and heifers from January 1st 2011 to June 1 2011. Over 200 of these female animals were in calf to Belgian Blue Bulls.

At least if you use AI BB, most of the time you have calving statistics for the bull. If you buy a BB bull, you are relying on statistics from his ancestors, rather than the bull himself.

ah yeah you are prob right reilig they would be a bit of risk now....especially with fairly muscley cows .....the ai is a pain ..but it does have its benefits to.

vanderbadger

polod wrote: »

ah yeah you are prob right reilig they would be a bit of risk now....especially with fairly muscley cows .....the ai is a pain ..but it does have its benefits to.

http://www.ibbcs.com/html/for_sale.html
you can look up all these bulls on icbf and see what their scores are, Paddy Kent seems to breed very easy calving bulls on paper anyway

polod

vanderbadger wrote: »

http://www.ibbcs.com/html/for_sale.html
you can look up all these bulls on icbf and see what their scores are, Paddy Kent seems to breed very easy calving bulls on paper anyway

jays cheers for that link vanderbadger just what i was looking for

leg wax

reilig wrote: »

Put it this way. My vet was telling me earlier this week, his practice did 270 sections on cows and heifers from January 1st 2011 to June 1 2011. Over 200 of these female animals were in calf to Belgian Blue Bulls.

At least if you use AI BB, most of the time you have calving statistics for the bull. If you buy a BB bull, you are relying on statistics from his ancestors, rather than the bull himself.

fair enough can you ask your vet
1. how many were by stock bulls.
2. how many were pedigree.
3.how many were blue on blue for show men.
4. how many of the farmers with their breeding x were half exspecting a section.
5.how many were down to poor management pre calveing.
its the same as i saying i got great money for some of the cattle but what about the bad ones still at home,get a full picture for the real % figure.

polod

leg wax wrote: »

fair enough can you ask your vet
1. how many were by stock bulls.
2. how many were pedigree.
3.how many were blue on blue for show men.
4. how many of the farmers with their breeding x were half exspecting a section.
5.how many were down to poor management pre calveing.
its the same as i saying i got great money for some of the cattle but what about the bad ones still at home,get a full picture for the real % figure.

very true that

Juniorhurler

reilig wrote: »

Put it this way. My vet was telling me earlier this week, his practice did 270 sections on cows and heifers from January 1st 2011 to June 1 2011. Over 200 of these female animals were in calf to Belgian Blue Bulls.

At least if you use AI BB, most of the time you have calving statistics for the bull. If you buy a BB bull, you are relying on statistics from his ancestors, rather than the bull himself.

We are running a blue bull with 70 sucklers. Had him for four years and have only had one caesarian. e are running mostly blond/limousin cross cows.
Just saw that pakalasa mentioned Paddy Kent. Thats where we bought our bull. Nice fella and easy enough to deal with.

caseman

Juniorhurler wrote: »

We are running a blue bull with 70 sucklers. Had him for four years and have only had one caesarian. e are running mostly blond/limousin cross cows.
Just saw that pakalasa mentioned Paddy Kent. Thats where we bought our bull. Nice fella and easy enough to deal with.

did you have any fertility problems. I know fellas that bought imported bulls with only 30 to 40 cows and ran into fertility problems. Maybe the bulls were to young. Im thinking of buyiny one myself not sure to buy at sale or go private.

Bizzum

pakalasa wrote: »

Anyone ever breed their own cross-bred bull?
For example AI a cow of known breeding, say an by an easy calving AI limousin bull like MBU. Use an easy calving BB bull on her.
That way, you would know 3/4 of the breeding in the bull. Quality of the offspring wouldnt be as good. But you're far less likely to get calving problems than say with a random cross-bred bull bought in the mart.

Several. But never used any of the bulls for breeding!
We have some pedigree CH cows and as heifers I would AI them to BA or Lim. One of our current cows is a BA out of a PB CH heifer, this cow has bred a couple of calves to AI Lims, so the calves would be 50% Lim, 25% BA, 25% CH. Now that I think of it her daughter was inseminated lately to AI Lim FL22!

I've used AI BB on a PB CH cow or two over the years too, Must root out a pic, I know I have some somewhere!